My Karen friends aren't much into hugging. It's just not something they do. Back when I was still getting to know the mother of the family that I visit, she told me, in broken English and elaborate mime, just how awkward she finds it that Americans often seem to want to hug her.
So the other week when I took her and her mother to sign up for some English classes, she really surprised me. They had to fill out some forms (which was challenging) and take a spoken English assessment. The administrator at the assessment centre was kind and friendly. When, at the end of the proceedings, she told my friends that they had been accepted into a class, they jumped up and...hugged her.
It was actually rather touching. My friends were no doubt thinking, Americans are huggy people, we should hug this one! The administrator clearly wasn't expecting to be hugged (it wasn't a situation that particularly called for hugging) but seemed to be charmed. She probably thought, what nice, huggy people these Karen are!
It was a sweet example of cultural misunderstanding working out just fine.
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